A look at some of Apple's pre-prompt Apple Intelligence instructions, like “Do not hallucinate” and “Do not make up factual information” for the Rewrite tool

Apple's latest developer betas launched last week with a handful of the generative AI features that were announced …

The Verge 2024-08-06 Wes Davis

Context & Ripple Effects

The guardrails surfaced as Apple Intelligence moved from its announcement into developer betas with text generation and Siri changes. They make the product’s alignment layer visible at the point where users begin testing individual writing features.

The instructions also fit Apple’s earlier position that its models rely on licensed and public material rather than users’ private data or interactions, alongside its disclosed technical emphasis on alignment strategies and on-device deployment.

First-order effects

Apple can constrain the Rewrite tool’s behavior with explicit pre-prompts, setting a documented expectation that factual invention is not an acceptable output.
Developers and beta users gain a clearer signal that Apple is treating generated writing as a bounded assistance feature, not an autonomous source of facts.

Second-order effects

The visible guardrails raise the standard against which Apple Intelligence’s writing output will be judged; later beta testing reporting hallucinations underscores that instructions alone do not guarantee reliable results.
Competitors embedding generative AI into everyday editing workflows face similar pressure to show how their safety and accuracy controls operate, rather than merely advertise model capability.

Third-order effects

As generative AI becomes embedded in default productivity interfaces, product differentiation is likely to shift partly toward dependable behavior, transparency, and recovery from errors—not just broad feature availability.
If prompt-level policies remain central to consumer AI products, evaluation will increasingly focus on whether those policies hold across real-world inputs, creating a persistent gap between stated safeguards and observed performance.

The trend: This is one data point in the shift from standalone generative-AI demos toward workflow-native assistants whose reliability must be managed inside the product experience.

Discussion

@reckless1280 Nilay Patel on threads
I don't know if AI is a bubble but I do know talking to computers like they're disobedient college freshman is the silliest programming language of all time https://www.theverge.com/...
@stroughtonsmith … Steve Troughton-Smith on mastodon
Apple's system prompts for Apple-Intelligence-backed features show that the company's ‘special sauce’ is just a carefully-crafted paragraph of text, hacked together just like everybody else is doing. Can't wait to see the ‘you are Siri’ system prompt — https://mastodon.social/…
@emollick Ethan Mollick on x
Apple has some of the best programming talent on the planet & huge R&D. But their system prompts for controlling the AI rolling out to millions are still basically incantations: “You are an expert at summarizing messages.” “Do not write a story that is filthy” LLMs are weird. [im…
@carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x
More examples of Apple Intelligence's system prompts can be found in the article below https://www.theverge.com/...
@minimaxir Max Woolf on x
Broke: prompt engineer Apple Intelligence to reveal its system prompt Woke: just search for a .txt file containing the prompts lol [image]
@benhylak Ben on x
Apple just solved LLM hallucination. Incredible work. [image]
r/MacOSBeta r on reddit
macOS 15.1 Beta 1 | Apple Intelligence Backend Prompts
@lapcatsoftware@mastodon.social Jeff Johnson on mastodon
Safari Distraction Control preliminary analysis: a thread. — I discovered that if you hide distracting items in a private window, your settings will be preserved in memory after closing the private window and applied to other private windows, but your settings won't be applied …
@viticci@mastodon.macstories.net @viticci@mastodon.macstories.net on mastodon
nice, so iOS' Safari now has built-in features to summarize articles AND hide ads from websites — Gotta love being a web publisher in 2024 🙃
@avstorm Andreas Storm on x
Thanos effect in iOS 18 Beta 5 [video]
@jsngr Jordan Singer on x
this but in any native iOS app
@edeas___ @edeas___ on x
@avstorm Woah what is this? Built into safari????
@brandonbutch Brandon Butch on x
RIP Ad Blockers! 😳 Apple's new “Distraction Control” feature in iOS 18 is amazing! It allows you to block elements you don't want to see in Safari & even adds a slick animation. [video]
@bzamayo Benjamin Mayo on x
I'm not sure how I feel about the existence of the ‘Distraction Control’ feature in iOS 18 Safari ... nevertheless the animation is sick. [video]
@theapplehub @theapplehub on x
Apple's new “Distraction Control” feature in iOS 18 is insane 🔥 [video]
@dylanmcd8 Dylan on x
Always loved Safari but oh my GOSH is this AWESOME
@zollotech Aaron Zollo on x
This new hide distracting items menu in safari in iOS 18 Beta 5 is great [image]
@durreadan01 Adan on x
In iOS 18 beta 5, you can thanos any element on a webpage, including ads. 😳 [video]
@tomwarren Tom Warren on x
I love the new Thanos snap animation in iOS 18 that lets you temporarily remove annoying ads on webpages 🫰 [video]
@nickadobos Nick Dobos on x
Oh what!? This is crazy Apple really said fuck popups
@sondesix Alvin on x
This iOS 18 feature is a gamechanger. And the animation is just... 🤤

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